WOMEN, GENDER, AND EMPOWERMENT

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WOMEN, GENDER, AND EMPOWERMENT
2
RESOURCES

• Modern Latin America chs. 7, 11 (Colombia, Chile)
• Htun, Women and Democracy (CR 3)
• Video In Womens Hands

3
STEREOTYPES

• Powerless in a macho world
• Passivity, docility
• Focus on family, children
• Lack of interest in politics and public sphere
• Marianismo (a controversial concept)

4
WOMENS INTERESTS

• Feminine or feminist?
• Practical interests position within gendered
  division of labor
• Strategic interests alternative social codes
  deriving from broad analysis of womens
  subordination
• Difference from U.S. interests in economic
  equality (e.g., glass ceiling) and sexual
  liberation emphasis on distinctiveness of
  womanhood

5
WOMEN AND AUTHORITARIANISM

• Compliance courtship by dictators
• Opposition merger of practical and strategic
  interests
• Articulation of demands
• Mothers (and Grandmothers) of Plaza de Mayo in
  Argentina
• Arpilleristas in Chile
• militant motherhood in Brazil
• Pro-democratic, left-of-center orientation

6
WOMEN IN TRANSITIONS TOWARD DEMOCRACY

• Urgency of institutional agenda gt concern for
  gender-related issues
• Backlog of impatient men
• Gender identity giving way to partisan
  affiliation
• Loss of solidarity

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SOURCES OF EMPOWERMENT

• Participation in labor force (23 in 1970, 35
  by 2000)
• Education (half of university students)
• Significant share of electorate
• Desire for change (and attitudes about womens
  superiority in selected issue-areas)
• International reputation (?)

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Women in Latin American Legislatures,
1990-2010 WOMEN
(AS TOTAL) Country 1990 2000 2010 Argentina
5
27 39 Bolivia
9 12
25 Brazil 5
6 9 Chile 6
11 14 Colombia
9 12 -- Ecuador
7 15
32 El Salvador
-- 10
19 Guatemala
7 9 12 Mexico
12 16
26 Paraguay 4
3 13 Peru
6 20 28 Uruguay
6 12
15 Venezuela 10
10 -- not available.
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ON QUOTAS

• To be effective, must be
• Obligatory
• Placement mandate
• Cost for non-compliance
• Most congenial electoral systems
• Proportional representation
• Closed party lists
• Large districts (i.e., deputies per district)

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VOTING PATTERNS

• Traditional gender gap
• More conservative than men
• Chile 1999 Right garnered 51 of women votes,
  Concertación 49 Right got only 46 of male
  votes, Concertación 54
• Right is now appealing to traditional family
  values
• Womens issues
• Rarely top-priority campaign platforms
• Success in agenda-setting gt policy implementation
• Women, in order to be important politically,
  cant talk about gender issues

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ABORTION

• Central issue on feminist agenda
• Still prohibited in several countries (including
  Uruguay and Chile)
• Common permitted if health or life of mother at
  risk (as certified by..)
• Available on demand
• Cuba
• Mexico City (DF, under leftist PRD)

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WOMEN PRESIDENTS

• Generation I Widows
• Isabel Martínez de Perón (Argentina)
• Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (Nicaragua)
• Mireya Moscoso (Panama)
• Generation II Self-Made Politicians
• Michelle Bachelet (Chile)
• Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Argentina)
• Laura Chinchilla (Costa Rica)
• Dilma Rousseff (Brazil)

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• Comparisons with the United States?

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CONTRASTS WITH USA

• Issues Feminism and Womens Interests
• Glass ceiling vs. household survival
• Sexual liberation vs. domestic violence
• Power-seeking vs. pro-human rights
• Middle class vs. popular level
• Social Movements and Political Parties
• Stridency vs. incrementalism
• Autonomous social movements or established
  parties
• Gender gap in voting
• Confrontation with authoritarian rulers
• Ambiguities of democratic rule
• Representation in legislatures, cabinets,
  executive positions?

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LEGISLATURES

• Gain of 35 , from 14 to 19 (2000-2006)
• USA 17
• World average 18.6